Greeley development ramping up

Construction continues on the Chick-fil-A on Thursday morning off of Centerplace Drive in west Greeley. The restaurant is just one of several new additions to Greeley. Greeley's commercial development is expected to keep a steady pace through 2014.

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Development is booming in Greeley and officials don’t see an end to the momentum any time soon.

Planned projects alone in 2014 — those now just on paper — easily surpass the last five years’ growth in most categories in Greeley, and it all got kick-started in 2013.

While commercial development has sustained Greeley for several years — the building of the Leprino Foods cheese factory, Noble Energy’s headquarters and the regional crime lab — other forms of development had all but stalled.

But 2013 brought plans for more than 800 multi-family units, almost 300 single-family homes and several new commercial/retail additions throughout town. Many likely will go up this year.

“Slow and steady kinda wins the race,” said Brad Mueller, Greeley’s community development director. “We hope it’s a nice, managed amount of retail that’s responsive to the market needs, and the lending environment and capital environment seems to support that.”

Mueller said he would characterize it as a very healthy emerging market, “consistent with the strong fundamental economic base that we’ve been able to build and sustain over the last decade and beyond.”

As of November, planned projects are toppling last year’s development across the board: There were 15 new commercial projects this year through November valued at $28.2 million, the latest numbers available through the city of Greeley, compared to nine in 2012.

Last year’s projects included Leprino Foods, Noble Energy and the crime lab, to boost the valuation to $49.2 million.

Greeley Mayor Tom Norton said he will look for the commercial development, the backbone of Greeley’s success in recent years, to continue at a decent pace through this year and into 2015.

“That’s simply because we will not have caught up and that will continue to grow and balance out,” Norton said. “We have a ways to go in terms of jobs and number of people we’ll have in our community. I look for a little faster pace of growth in both jobs and the economy.”

Residential projects became the story mid-year and kept chugging through the year. As of November, the city issued 132 permits for single-family housing — not quite the 600-plus registered every year prior to 2006 — compared to 50 all of last year.

Multi-family was a different story altogether, as the city’s vacancy rate sat below 2 percent for much of the year.

“The real story is the multi-family,” Mueller said. Through November, the city issued permits for 215 units.

“Last year was 42, which just eked in at the end of year,” he said.

City officials will be watching that residential picture emerge throughout 2014 knowing that “retail follows rooftops.”

So far, it’s bearing out somewhat like that, though retail is popping up a lot more than homes as of late.

A McDonald’s is planned for west Greeley; Panera Bread just opened at Centerplace and Chick-fil-A is under construction next door to Panera. Village Inn is set to replace the TGI Friday’s restaurant that just left the Centerplace shopping center while an ULTA Beauty store also is in the works there.

Candlewood Suites just opened in southwest Greeley, and a Homewood Suites is set to begin construction this year at Centerplace. Both will help put a dent in Greeley’s tight hotel market, teeming with oil field workers.

But Greeley’s development growth is more than just about the “new.” Mueller said there is plenty of infill happening throughout Greeley.

“What we’re seeing is just a nice, steady build out of a lot of existing places or rebuilding in the case of places like downtown,” Mueller said. “It’s really the balance of multiple spots.”

With the car dealerships, especially, he’s seen their commitment to staying put.

“One of the things I’ve noticed in and coming out of the recession, is the commitment or recommitment of auto dealership to existing sites,” Mueller said. “Almost without exception, I’ve seen them do some sort of facelift, expansion, recommitment to existing sites, rather than going further and further out” of town.

Ghent Chevrolet last year underwent a $1 million-plus expansion and John Elway Dodge also has some renovations underway for its service bays.

“It says to me there’s good economic sense in taking advantage of the existing infrastructure and support systems that are in the core areas,” Mueller said.

One of the better trends Mueller has seen is the diversity of projects and their geographies. Greeley is not just a one-trick pony, and officials say it’s not all about oil and gas development.

“We were hoping that oil and gas would be the spurt we needed, and that’s helped in the overall commercial like Centerplace and the mall and even downtown,” Norton said.

But retail and re-development projects are popping up all over the city.

Family Dollar is about to go up in east Greeley. Fresenius Medical Center has redeveloped a lot on the 10th Street corridor closer to downtown and, further west on 10th Street, McDonald’s is planned for demolition to be replaced by a newer version of itself. That doesn’t count the McDonald’s scheduled for the former Hewlett-Packard property on 10th Street across from the new King Soopers, or the other retail lots planned there.

A 100,000-square-foot storage facility is scheduled for southwest Greeley off of 29th Street. Stuft Burger Bar is set to come to downtown Greeley, while an historic renovation is planned for the old Nelson’s Office Supply building on 8th Street, and that is after a busy year with new restaurants and shops moving in.

City officials also continue to work on an agreement to bring a hotel and convention center downtown.

“It’s not only in those places, but in other centers, whether it’s Cottonwood, Westlake or Hillside, we’re seeing new businesses come into those places, efforts at experimenting on what might work at those places, and a lot of times, it’s local folks,” Mueller said of where the action will be. “And then, people are turning their attention to east of 85 and recognizing the large population of services there.”

Greeley’s population also is soon to pass the magic number — 100,000.

Mid-year 2013, Greeley officials had a count of slightly more than 97,000 residents in Greeley proper. Hitting that magic number will signal more changes, at least in the retail picture, Mueller said.

“It won’t be this big dramatic thing, but it will be another reason for some of the nationals to look at Greeley as a potential market,” Mueller said.

Big numbers also bring some concerns, Norton added.

“A city of 100,000 and growing can certainly support more of the retail kind of activity and more of the quality of life activity that we struggled within previous years, when we were a little smaller and people would tend to go elsewhere,” Norton said. “We’re in a position now to have people really stay at home a bit more.”

Norton said he’d like to see some more high tech and medical establishments start moving in as well. In fill, too, is high on his list after securing a downtown hotel.

“We’re in very good shape in terms of making that happen,” Norton said of the hotel. “I want to see that out of the ground and see what that spurs on for more of the tie of the downtown and university.”

He added, “Once I feel comfortable there, I’d like to see some more of the business development to the west tie together some of the western development like on 20th Street, to make those more neighborhood shopping areas, and then fill in.”